I’m going to take a break from the regular reviews of The Rolling Stones to take a look at the one art rock band that I personally think tops them all, Electric Light Orchestra. Of course, not all of their stuff is art rock. It’s Symphonic Rock, hard rock, but a lot of their early stuff (post-The Idle Race, although a lot of their stuff was Psychedelic which is a form of art rock at times.) has that beautiful artsy sound.
And Luckily, ELO doesn't have differences (that I can see immediately) between US and UK albums besides their unfortunate name mistakes.
The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer)
Released
December 1971
10538 Overture
This is a pretty big hit for ELO in the UK, and coming from the first song of their first album no less. No love in the US it seems though. The song uses some beautifully placed Cello love, but keeps the same structure throughout, and repeats most of it’s phrases with changes within the lines of different brass parts. Most people would be so confused to hear such a hard-and-heavy hit that relies of string and brass instruments. My one and only problem is that it perhaps goes on too long, since the song is mostly the same until the end.
8.75 /10
Look At Me Now
This has a strange demo feel, like McCartney’s first album; and by that I mean the vocals seem to have been recorded first, alone, and then the instrumentation was thoughtfully placed around it. Quite a bit of contrast from the hard rock hit from before, but that’s about it.
7/10
Nellie Takes Her Bow
You can really tell the difference between a Lynne composition and a Wood composition so far. Lynne seems to be more about making everything neat, and Roy just does what he thinks I guess. A slower song like Look At Me Now, but that’s exactly what Lynne wants you to think. About 2:20 into the song, we start to change, and that’s the beauty of some of these lesser known ELO song; they’re very much like full orchestra pieces having several movements. The change isn't drastic though, as it’s still slow, but it does take on a violin solo. Also, Lynne adds some sort of vocal effect that I really don’t know if I like or not. I feel like a bit more could have been put into this song, but as is it’s pretty nice with nice backing vocals to accompany everything else. (Also, I thought it was bow, as in violin bow. I mean, try putting the pieces together, it’s EL Orchestra)
7.75 / 10
The Battle of Marston Moor (July 2nd, 1644)
Wikipedia has a nice word to describe this song: Baroque-and-Roll. A Roy composition that is very story-heavy, but at the same time uses the available orchestration to a great extent. He really was going for less of a song and more for a story, and like I said, art. It’s hard not to expect art pieces from a band like this. This is also the longest song on the album, clocking in at just over 6 minutes, and maybe it isn't worth it. Art’s fun and all, but the listeners have to be in it as well. I imagine Roy was very happy making this, because a lot of work goes into things like this, more so than Mick Jagger and his filler albums. It’s a weird piece that has some weird transitions between it’s movements, but it does have that nasty ending note. Nasty in a good way.
6.75 / 10
First Movement (Jumping Biz)
Very interesting. It’s hard to explain all of these pieces, but this is something different. It’s very upbeat, but not too much. It’s like an intro to a movie. I think I enjoy this piece, because it’s fun and short. A song like this wouldn't work long (see the song right before this, although that was more art than this song.)
7.75 / 10
Mr. Radio
No, it’s not Mr. Blue Sky yet. Go away. It can be easily compared to this song though. It’s a combination of Mr. Blue Sky and Telephone Line. It’s a nice, simple story as well, mixed in with some of the most beautiful composed orchestration on the album. But you know, behind the story, and the orchestra, it’s just a good song. Nothing more, nothing less. (Although guilty pleasure to the use of backwards violins at the end)
8/10
Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)
For a second I thought it was going to start the beginning of The Wall; those piano notes are either exactly the same or close to Outside the Wall. The feeling of the song definitely matches the 49th Street Massacre part, with it’s dark and demanding piano and beating drums and the cellos make their stand. Halfway through the song we get something a bit different, but still manages to keep a dark and creepy atmosphere. Oh, and there’s wind instruments, that’s a bit weird. This song is almost fun, and I actually smiled at around the 3 minute mark when the high-pitched background vocals started (probably for the song reason though). So far, this album really tries its best to be art.
6.75/10
Queen of the Hours
Lynne gets his third written song in a row, and it’s more of what I like. More music and less art, but it’s still pretty much art (but pretend it isn't so I can stop saying the word art for a bit.) Something I’m going to note here is that a lot of the song blend in together, and not in the way that one track overlaps into the other track, but they all start to sound the same (besides 10538 Overture.) That’s not the best thing to do. Nothing much to say about this song except that it has a nice length.
7.5/10
Whisper in the Night
Wood ends this album with something beautiful. We go back to the slow lyrical style of the album with this song, and it’s very lyrical. And one of my #1 guilty pleasures appear on this song, although only for a short amount of time, a slide guitar solo (a soft one). Other than that, though, it’s alright. Very soft, very beautiful, but very much the same as the rest of the album.
8/10
68.25 / 90
In Conclusion
I love ELO, I love Lynne, and as a violin player I love orchestration. I have a great appreciation for everything that was attempted here and their other albums (and Lynne’s producer work on everything from his albums to his fellow Wilburys’ albums.) I would not recommend this album to many people. This is an album for specific tastes, and people who just like ELO. I can forgive them for this being their first album, but both Lynne and Wood has had experience with albums (Wood has four with The Move and a single with Acid Gallery, and Lynne has possibly six with both The Move and The Idle Race.) There’s something here for sure, but is it music? Yes it’s music, of course it’s music. Just not the type of music that will ever be accepted like regular rock.
I'm not saying I'm glad they decided to rock more later, but I'm implying it. I love me some baroque, but maybe not a lot of baroque that wants you to know its baroque. Forced Baroque, perhaps?
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